Tonight at 7pm, neighborhood residents all lovers of Dolores Park will gather at the Dolores Park Church (455 Dolores) to “form goals and strategize.” Some neighborhood policy setters will be there, so if you care about the city making community events more rare, your right to picnic, grilling pork, trash, noise, dogs off-leash, dogs on-leash, pedophile hipsters smoking cigarettes near the swings, or whatever your issue is, show up.

The fact is that people are going out of their way to meet and talk about ways to better take care of the park. Are you going to go and help? Will you volunteer to pick up other people’s trash on weekends? That’s what the meeting is supposedly for. They are trying to form a community group to make up for the lack of city services. If that is “bitching” to you, then yes, there will be bitching.

If y’all need a drink after the meeting, come by the League of Pissed Off Voters celebrity bartender night at Elixir and get served by Jeff Adachi, Jane Kim, Chris Daly, and Broke-Ass Stuart.http://theleague.com/sf/get-served/

What organization is planning this event? Is it the church? If this is a regularly occurring event, I’d like attend & tell more folks. Is there a website or anything from the organizers announcing the meeting & a schedule?

As a ‘neighbor of the park’ (I live on 20th St, across from the top) I want to make sure that people remember that any categorical label for a group of people will never fit perfectly -

I’m a proponent of people enjoying themselves in the park, but I can see how 25 people will have 25 individual, unique viewpoints, and each one will be expressing themselves ‘on behalf of their friends and neighbors’, and each one will feel that they are on the proper side of the fence – this is why I’m a fan of ‘live and let live’ for conflict resolution.

I’d attend the meeting, but I have the feeling that – in true SF style – every possible viewpoint will have full representation.

I must admit that I am getting tired of seeing the Police Van parked at 19th and Dolores – I’ve regained a lot of respect for the role of police since moving to San Francisco, but the visual reminder at the entrance to a park (and some of the hamfisted commentary from an officer) is leaving a bad taste in my mouth…

not sure if you were there last night (there were 30 or so people), but, as expected, everyone had a say, at least in the introductions… they took more than half the meeting. kevin did a good job of not showing if he took all of the abuse personally, and also was articulate about how blaming a particular demographic was unnecessary and inappropriate. unfortunately, he was only one of five or six people there that was focused on results rather than bitching.

end result of the meeting (as far as i could tell):
1) meet again on sunday at 2. at the park. to clean up and discuss further ideas for the park’s maintenance and stewardship.
2) the park is dirty. it should be cleaned up more by the people that use it.
3) the park gets used too much. that’s already going to stop (fewer permits are being distributed).
4) but the park STILL is used too much. at least, some people feel that way. others don’t see how a park can be used “too much,” and yet others (myself included) like that the park is packed on a sunny day for no other reason than that it’s a sunny day.
5) and yet the park is still dirty…

so that’s what happened. we met each other briefly, listened to a few people describe their ideas in detail, heard everyone else for a second or two, and decided to meet again at 2 on sunday to actually do something.

if you’re interested in participating as part of the group (as opposed to, you know, just helping keep the park clean on your own), show up in a light colored shirt with a green arm band.

Thanks for coming last night and as a long time San Francisco resident, I understand your viewpoint. There are a lot of BIGGER issues that as you know, will be addressed over time and will be contentious till the end of time.

I am hopeful that the one more straight forward item of keeping the park clean, working to get people to not leaving their trash on the ground in the park, makes good sense and there is a common good there that.

What is the over-utilization of the park indicated by? Is it that the grass is not nice? Well, it’s a park for use, not a front lawn. This could be handled by creating a small portion of the park (maybe 5′ wide by 10-20′ long in a few places) that is not usable by patrons of the park, but will give a nice, green, lush appearance (really, who cares).

Is it because there are a lot of people there when the “coalition” members would like to use the park? Well, it is public…I do hope that just because I live in SOMA doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be at Dolores when it’s nice and sunny.

Isn’t the idea of a park to be utilized and encourage community and being outdoors?

Hey Zach: Totally agree. I’m not a fan of “over utilization” of a park, City, State, or National. To me that’s counter intuitive. The only thing I think in the end is that some common sense use is observed…that’s all.

Everyone should be welcomed, everyone should be encouraged, and everyone should also feel a sense of ‘ownership’ as well for the park. So, where ever anyone lives, c’mon down.

[...] to participate in the park advocacy process by several leaders, Kevin Montgomery, of the blog MissionMission had urged all lovers of the park , ”if you care about the city making community events more [...]